Ministry urges Reliance to open outlets at underserved areas

The petroleum ministry has rapped Reliance Industries for failing to meet its obligations of opening and operating 10% of its petrol and diesel retail outlets in remote and low-service areas. The Mukesh Ambani-controlled company also says that the “authorization of marketing fuels is a consequence of the stated policy (of allowing fuel prices to be determined by the market)”, adding that the “unfulfilled promise of market-driven pricing leaves no scope to subsidize operations in low-service and remote areas”. The public sector oil marketing companies are compensated for the retailing losses they incur by a mechanism through which the government, the state-owned oil exploration companies and the oil marketing companies equally share the losses. (August 5, 2007)